Translational Personas and Hospital Library Services

ABSTRACT

Academic health centers, CTSA hubs, and hospital libraries experience similar funding challenges and charges to do more with less. In recent years academic health center and hospital librarians have risen to these challenges by examining their service models, and beyond that, examining their patron base and users’ needs. To meet the needs of employees, patients, and those who assist patients, hospital librarians can employ the CTS Personas, a project of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program National Center for Data to Health. The Persona profiles, which outline the motivations, goals, pain points, wants, and needs of twelve employees and two patients in translational science, provide vital information and insights that can inform everything from designing software tools and educational services, to advertising these services, to designing impactful and collaborative library spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic health centers
• hospital libraries
• organizational structure
• service models
• translational science

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to extend their sincere thanks to the personnel working in clinical and translational sciences in these Persona roles who allowed the project team to interview them to inform this work. The project team would also like to acknowledge Northwestern University’s Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences and the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS, Grant UL1TR001422); Jonah M. Duckles, creator of the software use icons; and Melissa Buote, who designed the Personas trading cards. Support for this work was provided by the CTSA Program National Center for Data to Health (CD2H) funding by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (Grant U24TR002306). Any opinions expressed in this document are those of the CD2H community and do not necessarily reflect the views of NCATS, team members, or affiliated organizations and institutions. (SG, LOK, KG, GV, AW, RC, and KH)

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute [NUCATS, Grant UL1TR001422] and the CTSA Program National Center for Data to Health (CD2H) funding by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health [Grant U24TR002306].